Janine Dahinden

University of Neuchâtel

I am a Professor of Transnational Studies and director of the MAPS (Maison d’analyse des processus sociaux) at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. I am interested in understanding processes of mobility, transnationalisation and boundary making, and their concomitant production of inequalities linked to ethnicity, race, class, religion or gender. My research is anchored in what has been called ‘reflexive migration studies’: I aim at developing in my work theoretical and methodological approaches which can overcome the nation-state- and ethnicity-centred epistemology that still largely informs migration studies and that creates particular forms of exclusions and reproduces hegemonic structures. More generally, I am interested in the way knowledge is produced within migration studies. I follow in my work a post-migration/post-ethnic approach towards understanding the (transnational and local) social organization of “difference” and concomitant processes of “Othering” and their effects in terms of exclusion/inclusion. Finally, I am also engaged in “public” research. I am convinced about the important role that social scientists are to play by getting involved in political debates, such as for example migration issues. I have, for instance, been commissioned by state authorities in Switzerland to study the working conditions of cabaret-dancers, or the dynamics of the so called ‘forced marriage’. I have also been organizing expositions or I often participate in round tables and similar public events.

Please find an interview and a blog which give a short insight into some of my ideas below and in the reader section of this website.